While it is too early to assess the likely outcome of the current Stormont talks, it is clear that the changing political landscape in the south is likely to have a major impact on events in the north.

Fresh Stormont talks already feel stale as it becomes clear the secretary of state’s February 7 ‘deadline’ is only a “milestone” - and hence no more written in stone that the year of deadlines before it.

I should be grateful that I am not a lucky type of person especially given the fact that it is proposed to inflict on the long suffering people of Northern Ireland a grandiose quango called the Citizens' Assembly which is supposedly composed of those unfortunate enough to be selected from the electoral register.